The human body requires about three thousand cubic
feet per hour, and the great problem of ventilation
is to give this amount of pure air, moving, and with
the proper amount of moisture.
It is a common belief that with each breath we take
we are filling our lungs with fresh air. This
is not the case, for we never do get our lungs filled
with fresh air. What really happens is that we
ventilate a long tube which has no intercommunication
whatever with the blood. Most of the time our
lungs are filled with impure air, and we simply exchange
a part of it for fresh air.
Deep breathing is undoubtedly extremely beneficial.
Most of us, due largely to the fact that Nature leaves
a considerable margin of safety, are able to carry
on our ordinary activities without the requisite ventilation
of the lungs, especially if we do not exercise.
This, however, is injurious to the lungs, for it allows
the blood to stagnate in them. Exercise is Nature’s
method of compelling ventilation in the lung area.
Deep breathing may be used as a substitute, but the
other beneficial effects of exercise are lost.
The skin and the various glands connected with it
form a complex organism, the functions of which play
a very important part in the work which the body has
to do. The skin aids the lungs in their work of
respiration; and, like the lungs, it throws off water
and carbon dioxide and absorbs oxygen. The respiratory
work of the skin, however, is only a minute fraction
of that which the lungs do.
The skin is a heat regulator, and in this, its most
important work, it is aided by the two million or
more sweat-glands which are distributed over almost
the entire surface of the body. The skin and the
sweat-glands work together to keep the blood at an
even temperature, either by giving off heat or in
preventing this process in case the outside air is
too cool. The body temperature, as a rule, is
higher than that of the outside air, so that heat
is generally being given off by the skin. We
are perspiring constantly, but usually to such a slight
extent that the fact is hardly noticeable. The
amount of heat which is thrown off at any time is
proportional to the amount of the tissue burned up
by muscular action.
Health, strength, and efficiency! Surely every
man in this great Republic of ours wants to be healthy,
strong, and efficient, but how is he to obtain and
maintain this threefold blessing? It has been
stated that scientific physical exercise, preferably
taken in group association, will accomplish it.
Now to consider some of the practical details involved.
The organization may be composed of any number from
sixteen to one hundred men, and about the smallest
unit that should be undertaken is that of sixteen
men. On the other hand, when the number gets above
one hundred (or preferably ninety-six, in order that
it may be divided into four companies of twenty-four
each) it is better to start a second group under a
separate leader.
